Great lengths to find out who my sils was or with the because you know. The story gets even more complicated of all people one of sarahs eans own clients managed to take the high flying Financial Institution to court drugstore king air vent. The german billionaire invested almost 15000000 euros in comics trades unknowingly according to him miller says the bank misused his money he hired a stuttgart law firm for the case millers lawyer. Says his client was a victim of the bank. The reason was that my client invested in the supposedly secure Financial Model on the recommendation of the thorazine bank. Comics risk double tax refunds. Ever came up. In the trial against sarah xen the parties contradicted each other. But millers lawyer got some unexpected help from inside the bank. A long Time Employee passed on internal documents that helped side win the case for miller. The sara zene informant wants to stay anonymous but is willing to talk to us about what he witnessed at the bank. I saw that the bank wanted to sell and had already sold a Financial Product clearly designed to defraud german tanks authorities when customers bought the product they were told that what they were buying was completely on the level and legal according to the informant the product originated with mr comics himself. Confronted with the accusations berger told us by email that he only advised a few clients regarding comex and no banks but the former sara xen employee says otherwise he claims he tried to raise the alarm about burger numerous times. At one point i was told very clearly that my reservations were misplaced that dr baer go was an expert in german tax law my boss told me several times that baerga had excellent networks in germany right up to the highest levels of government in berlin i was told he knew what he was doing and that we should just trust him. And it wasnt just happening in switzerland some large german Financial Institutions were also caught up in the scandal none of them more willing to answer our questions about comics on camera but we did get some written responses. The Frankfurt Public Prosecutors Office is investigating in connection with shared transactions of comets bank and the former dress that our bank performed over the dividend record date socalled come x. Transactions coming out sponsors cooperating fully with the authorities. Has cooperated and continues to cooperate with public prosecutors investigating criminal offenses regarding possible tax evasion in connection with the age b. B. S. Comics transactions which affect both bank itself and a former h. P. V. Customer. Did not participate in organized comics trades either as a short seller or as comics purchaser however the bank was involved in comics transactions of customers. We did not receive a statement from swiss banks are missing. As all of their trying to gain insight into the secretive financial world we came across an important witness. As part of our investigation we had an insider. He came clean in an interview with us he also described a meeting here in frankfurt in the high rise building where his office was. Bigger told the group you know if anyone here has a problem with the fact that what were doing prevents kindergartens and schools and roads from being renovated they should please get up and leave you know that no one left the meeting room as of today i mean they didnt know the meaning of the word morality. More to condemn it. When we asked him about these alleged statements no backers response was to say that a lawyer only represents his clients interests and doesnt work for the state worse few of. Whom do why didnt come next traders seem to care where the money came from was it arrogance or ignorance. Hamburg business psychologist eva short to alstom knows about the secretive circles of bankers bank of the bank is see their role as 1st and foremost to increase their customers investment or at least not to let it decrease and given that they consider it absolutely fair and legitimate to evade taxes in order to save their customers money. The more their customers invested the more the suspected comics perpetrators made in commissions that meant the ig money you know its one of them bought a yacht which he supposedly named come x. Roll then there was a broker who had 2 villas on milkha one in the north and one in the south certain when he was asked why he said theres a 2 degree temperature difference here in winter i mean the one thats a bit warmer and in summer i mean the cooler one the bridge into i n n these are the kinds of a 1st World Problems that come to traitors faces they dont even know what to do with their money and we need. The high life at the taxpayers expense thanks to the state rebates comebacks participants remained in their wealth bubble far from the reality most of us know. Journalists like all of the shoreham were stirring up a lot of dirt as they investigated the story and things were about to get even dirtier. Back to berlin an important place in the comic saga germanys political establishment has come in for heavy criticism over its handling of the scandal. When you meant those houses if someone leaves the door of the house open so these can wander in and out and theyre partly responsible if theres a burglary of a school with come x. This they feel blatantly discuss it has to be dealt with people need to take political responsibility but. The 1st signs of that failure came early on in 1992 an official in the Economy Ministry of the state of has reported the 1st comics transactions but 10 years passed and nothing happened. By 2002 at the latest the German Government was aware of comics the association of german banks sent a letter to the finance ministry drawing attention to comics deals. At the time the finance minister was hans i should of the center left social democrats hes the only former finance minister to agree to an interview he wasnt at the helm during the peak of comics deals but his term did cover the arrival of the banking associations letter. Job here in france to mine outside as finance minister i never heard anything about this topic during my time as finance minister if. There was a letter which i later saw from the association of german banks to the finance ministry on a clerical level even though a matter stated a clerical often there is a whole lot even at the time it seemed to be it was your early technical tax issues and not anything that had to do with large revenues or revenue losses to the state and i know i know most of the stuff thats why it never got beyond that level oh you would use even then you know skookum. But that explanation implies a minister who was unaware of the goings on in his ministry to whom Important Information wasnt presented. This is from the zippos ybor does that mean is that i find it very plausible that the minister didnt find out about it at the time. That that when if that doesnt mean that hes not responsible then if im vocal is his responsibility is to put systems in place so that people in his departments know whats going on. And that didnt happen but thats what was there for. In order to gain more insight into the financial world the ministry also relies on external experts under i shal successor perished on book there was another blunder a former fiscal court judge from disallowed or was assigned to among other things come x. That was asking for trouble because the man is suspected of having received payments from banking associations while he was working for the finance ministry on legislation for banking regulation he was given all manner of confidential information sent to his private email account its believed that he sometimes forwarded the information to contacts in the finance industry. Of all people this man who also helped create the 1st law designed to prevent comics he used the letter sent by the association of german banks as a template it had been provided to him by the finance ministry under hans i showed the letter included a proposal for the prevention of comics which became the basis for the new law it did reduce the states risk of liability but one crucial loophole was left open the ability to carry out comics deals through a foreign country. The new law was passed in 2007 under finance minister perished comics trades were now no longer possible from germany but they could still be done from abroad perished on book success or both come short of blood let valuable time slip by before acting it was only in 2012 that legislation finally stopped comics in germany in 2016 opposition lawmakers helped to launch an inquiry to shed light on political aspects of the scandal. Is that the 4 have a an over i sort of usually said to the other parties the minds of the why dont we clear this up together if youve got something clearly went wrong and we owe it to the taxpayer you see is what its pretty hard the. On the social democrats rejected the idea. When the inquiry began they said it was unnecessary but in the final report they tried to keep the calculator at last as a small as possible or something thats refuted today. They tried to make it seem as if everyone had done everything right. Thats hot chicks assessment at the time he was financial policy spokesman for the greens in the bundestag and played a major role in establishing the inquiry the suspicion was that there were numerous failures under finance ministers parish. And that authorities were called in too late. The journalist all of us from also followed the inquiry closely finance minister to the finance ministers distinguished themselves by the claim that they remember nothing and know nothing is that for now thats kind of a damning indictment that maybe its true that the information didnt reach the middle of that. That says a lot about the political apparatus or about the ministries that this sort of information would get stuck in the bureaucracy and not reach the very top when he discovered that no decisions were made. Thats a tragedy and a systemic problem is the. Billionaire. Was called in as a witness he saw himself as a victim. Fish. Hopefully i was able to help clarify a very complex issue of me and other investors being cheated out of money by the bag. And there was a lot of money involved comics was a scheme for the super rich the higher the stake the higher the tax refund experts say that the private investors in the 3 cases mentioned here may have invested up to 300000000 euro. Another person who came before the committee was the former judge working for the finance ministry. The. Money goes if it all never forget that one plot was a really hot day everyone was wishing except teams because he was pretty cool people and sitting there in his suit no lawyer with him no documents he was pretty sure of himself and that wouldnt make when he was confronted with a claim that he leaked this information in his own emails were read out he just said smugly thats all in the past and thats how it was they couldnt get anything on him botho. The inquiry brought political failures to light even so the final report would later state that the responsible authorities had acted appropriately. Today former german finance minister hans ayesha is concerned about the signal the comics affair could send their stuff. Thats an invite as the state cant accept this because in the long run in undermines trust in the state criminality we cant of all crimes and thats not something well succeed in doing in the course of human history. Of what we have to equip the authorities so that they catch criminals as much as possible and it wasnt because it is i think we could do more to make sure that we have the kinds of laws that ensure criminals get the punishment they deserve it uses for question 48. It sounds good in theory but as so often the reality is different in switzerland a trial began not against the bankers but against more your account zite and his informant the accusation corporate espionage eckart zite had passed on his information to German Authorities which significantly advanced the investigation. Pile always schnitt. Were one part of an instance of Financial Market crime. I mean its organized crime that wasnt clear before its transnational you have this influence a kind. I recognize that im an early stage and i also inform the authorities in switzerland. When meant when youre accused and prosecuted for doing that but its a real full effect. This is. Echoed zite was ultimately handed a fine his informant was given 13 months probation after having spent 6 months in pretrial custody. Thanks in part to zite investigations were finally underway in germany but a central question was still unanswered was coming next illegal or not. Heat of was that thats his tie in it everybody knew that you couldnt have a refund on a tax that had never been paid attended us to stephen everyone knew the system created money out of nothing at the expense of the treasury who lost in the starts. Or didnt. I dont need any special Legal Expertise to know that thats simply not ok to eat and yet the perpetrators continue to help themselves from state coffers even though they already had plenty. Of this at some point it was no longer about the money at some point it was just about the thrill i guess because eventually there is enough money more than you can spend in a day a week a year or maybe a new whole lot to mention but its the thrill that drives people to do very risky thing else including high stakes speculation so the idea of getting caught and what will happen if someone finds out that you called. If comics was just a game for bankers and investors then thats a real slap in the face for the millions of ordinary citizens who conscientiously pay their taxes. In early summer 2017. And his journalist colleague christiane so lets speak were in switzerland theyd tracked down mr come x. Barrack are. Hot on his heels the 2 journalists wanted to confront with the findings of their investigation. Very eloquent and friendly man if you have a good time on the phone but then he bombard scene with expertise and drowns even complexity thats going on before bothering you with technical essays and so on to make it clear that from his point of view the whole thing was legal and hes an innocent past and being prosecuted im sure it is but we havent been able to speak to him personally except on the phone. You know for a bug im just a bad guy just trying to make with you. In the midst of spam your expert reports all of them with. Christiane zalewski had joined the at times bizarre comics reporting beat in 2016 together with other colleagues the left ski and shrum continue to evaluate Insider Information and meet with whistleblowers they began to uncover new details that revealed the extent of comics. And among the mountains of files on our terrell we had a very early email from hope it meticulously sent out the legal situation in all European Countries excel spreadsheet on string the question where can we deploy this. Very thorough music aplon as an off the question was was it hypothetical or did they really carry out this plan in the title because its. In fact unknown comebacks perpetrators were beginning to act abroad once the practice was no longer legally possible in germany its said to have continued in Northern Europe like here in denmark. The danes are still waiting for an explanation as to why the German Government didnt warn them earlier at the time then danish tax minister albertson turned to berlin for assistance we have very good relations on different matters but when it comes to. Especially when it comes to this comic scandal the level of cooperation has been very low while i have a really i really honestly cant understand why the German Government and the minister of finance didnt prioritize cooperation it would have been likely at that that the fraud and then would have been discovered earlier and could have been stopped earlier. By 2015 denmark is estimated to have suffered losses equivalent to 1700000000. 00 euro that means that in per capita terms the scandal may have hit denmark even harder than germany become expert traders were also attracted to other countries and the journalists now chased their story across european borders. Doesnt look at that we soon realized we needed Cooperation Among european journalists and i cant speak polish i cant speak spanish i dont know the ins and outs of tax law right now the countries without france europeans wouldnt affect. Now that they countries most of the employment is open they are. In nov 2800. 00 the e. U. Took notice of the tax scam partly thanks to all of us and his colleagues the journalists went before the European Parliament to explain the extent of the problem. In these countries tax revenues are being raided right now. He cites germany by 2015 comics trades were also happening in denmark and austria later similar models appeared to have been used in France Italy Spain norway finland poland and the czech republic. It was now a european scandal uncovered thanks to international Cooperation Among journalists even then the e. U. Didnt initiate any investigations saying instead that the problem was to be solved primarily at the National Level. But some members of the European Parliament did want to hold each new institutions to account among them German Green Party m. E. P. Spending gold thats so popular in the European Parliament asked the european ranking all 13 and the european securities and markets orthorexic to launch an investigation it took months because the National Supervisors didnt want to. According to google those at the National Level like Member States finance authorities delayed the investigation to prevent their own failures from coming to light it took pressure from the European Parliament to put the investigations in motion there still ongoing. Citizens lose faith that the state is there for everyone thats very dangerous if people feel there are 2 kinds of justice one for the Little People who have to abide by the law and who get severely punished if theyre caught and another for the powerful who say this wasnt a crime at all it was just a trick i mean the the take. After years of draining state revenue the practice of comic share trades does seem to have dried up but there are always new breeding grounds for this type of practice. And consequently havent learned the crucial lessons that we should have from the comics a fair deal. Even after 2012 when actual comics traits were no longer technically possible similar things kept on happening for the symbiote or. This. After comebacks came come come then come fake theyre similar models resourceful Financial Traders are always on the lookout for tax loopholes. Experts estimate the europe wide damages from comics and its successor models to be 55000000000. 00 euro the largest part of that was taken from german tax authorities almost 32000000000. 00 euro. There are ideas for new safeguards to strengthen tax morris but so far theyre just that i. D. S. Its a small force. One suggestion is to have a european find. Actual police force where investigative threads can come together instead of authorities sporadically sharing bits of information here and there and i need someone to really gather information and take concerted action against White Collar Crime again this is also the idea that tax advisors and Financial Advisors should have an obligation to report any legal loopholes they come across for it to be an offense not to report them less than 0 it sounds somewhat trivial now but at least it would be a step in the right direction i. Didnt get it if you dont. Theres still no such obligation but the Justice System has begun to deal with the issue. And bought a stick yes its the 1st criminal trial in the so called come x. If it has begun then 2 British Investment bankers have been charged. In september 2900. 00 suspected comebacks perpetrators stood trial for the 1st time the case was an opportunity to clarify whether comics was illegal and who would pay for the billions in damage as for far im going to give a sports with a trial at the Regional Court and only address as one piece of the puzzle that was like a rift in a feeling this is going to occupy our courts for years to come fix it for until all the aspects of comics are covering the details as indeed some of the perpetrators are abroad is for a large sum of the money may be long gone before bad burn through theres no way well get everything back the lists or calm. All the bush round had to wait 6 months for a verdict to be handed down in that trial the fact that the 1st suspected perpetrators landed in court at all was due to the journalists were uncovered the dubious dividend deals despite being shadowed and even becoming a target of the authorities himself ultimately the investigation against was dropped. The end of the story for him for now at least civilities comics and the chum exit eames like a Financial Crime novel is but it is reality not fictional so i couldnt have imagined what would happen what we dont cover but realities like that or as is this is one of the biggest tax frauds in european history. And what of comics bastard burger after mom to liberation the vase budden Regional Court approved an indictment against him a tax lawyer still claims he did nothing illegal. In a liberal constitutional state everything is allowed unless its forbidden. Whether comebacks was legal is now a matter for the courts the other remaining question is who will repay the billions lost. Money will always flow into the hands of the greedy the comics case is the perfect example and no countrys Justice System has so far been able to completely stop such wheeling and dealing. Collected by children in india. Used on mass by cosmetics companies. Mica is a law material thats mine is in a highly risky conditions. Combining business with conscience its a balancing act for the manufacturing industry. Global 3000. And 30 minutes on d w. O africa. A boost in digitalization in the pandemic. And online Payment System has got rwandas motorcycle taxis are back on the road after a months long drive the bat. Now the customers pay for the ride without cash. Because africa. Continued. William had to be going to keep those auditors with the highest high you know if i had owned the boat i would be that small i never would have gone on the trip of you i would not have put myself and my parents in the danger to the bottom of the demon to put a beautifully it would. Love one for them to deposit on the would be to give them i have Serious Problems on a personal level and i was unable to live there but lets im going to. Want to know their story for my great stir find a country model information for margarets. The state away news im these are our top stories french president among im on call as facing a growing backlash in the muslim world for his recent comments about islam the controversy began when he defended satirical images of the muslim Prophet Muhammad following the bone murder of a french teacher. To bake wildfires are burning out of control in Southern California near los angeles the blazes fanned by high winds have blocked roadways